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Note - most stories are fictional and do not refer to anyone in particular living or dead. True stories will say they are true!

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Saturday, August 31, 2013

It was early in the morning
when Lo Mei woke Cheri and told her to quickly bathe and put on her clean
clothes.

After her bath she was told
to wash her dirty clothes and dry them for tomorrow. Cheri couldn’t believe that people washed so
often. She seldom had taken a full bath;
she only did what you might call a sponge bath.

She knew there was the
absence of the smell of the docks in this home and it was different, even
pleasant.

None of the smell of rotting
fish, and other offensive smells she was used to.

She went to the kitchen and
the cook looked her up and down with a scowl on her face and told her this was
her domain and for her to respect it as so.

Cheri politely agreed to do
as she wished, at the same time she wondered if the cook’s scowl was
permanently fixed of her face or was something she reserved for people she
looked down upon.

Lo Mei came in and explained
who Cheri was and how she was to be respected and treated.

After that the house-cook,
Jia softened her tone toward Cheri.

It was going to be a couple
of hours before Martha would begin to get up so after breakfast Lo Mei began to
show Cheri the house and explain what each room was used for.

Lo Mei then told Cheri to
spend time in each room acquainting her self with the furnishings and décor
after which she was to ask what everything was for and why it was there.

After breakfast Cheri was to
be presented to Martha and Lord Malborne.

Courtesy
photobucket

Lo Mei brought Cheri in where
she made the appropriate bows and kept her eyes down. Lord Malborne looked up from his paper and
cast a glance toward her then went back to his paper.

Martha called her over and
asked her some questions that would test her intellect and her grasp of the
English language.

She dismissed her and gave
her evaluation of Cheri to Lo Mei.

She then gave Lo Mei a list
of things that needed to be worked on.

She said for a while she must
be tutored by the man that taught you to fit in our society. She must be able to move among us without
being noticed.

Her one flaw is; she is much
too pretty and doesn’t look like a full bloodied Chinese.

Lo Mei said her mother earned
some extra money when they were starving by being friendly with a ships captain
which might explain it.

“Then she is Eurasian and not
full Chinese?”

Lo Mei said, “That is
possible.”

Martha said, “No matter she
will either work out or it will be back to the docks for her.”

Later in the afternoon she
summoned Cheri to her sitting room and had her sit while she observed her. With very little conversation they began to
get acquainted.

The thing Martha wanted the
most was a comforting feeling that someone was near whom she cared for and someone
who respected and cared for her as a person.

She realized they were a long
way from being there but over time - - perhaps. Their first time together went well though
neither said much.

The one thing that came out
of that was they were able to figure out when Cheri’s birthday was and how old
she was.

She wasn’t quite ten years
old as of yet.

Over the next few weeks
Cheri’s time was spent being taught the right protocol for living in the home
of a Lord and Lady.

Much of that was laid aside
when Cheri was alone with Martha.

Martha envisioned Cheri
becoming her personal secretary and her training was directed toward that end.

There were times when
communicating with Chinese society women using Chinese instead of English would
be more intimate and personal.

Over and again she thought
“What a bright child” and how quickly she learns."

Cheri had now put aside her
first wardrobe and now was dressed in upscale dress for Chinese ladies.

Martha didn’t want her to
look like she was trying to be an English lady.

A year passed and now when
Martha went out she was accompanied with Lo Mei and Cheri where before it was
only Lo Mei.

There was no conflict between
them for each knew their place and kept to it.

More than once at tea time
someone would mention how beautiful Cheri was and where could they could find
such a refined companion.

Friday, August 30, 2013

After working out an
agreement with the grandmother; the house maid returned to the house of Lady
Malborne and told her of her progress.

Martha (Lady Malborne) was
beginning to question her reasons for bringing Cheri into her home. After telling the maid of her uncertainty
about the decision the maid assured it would be all right. The maid suggested they would treat her as a
house cleaner, and if she didn’t please Martha they would send her back to the
streets.

This relieved Martha’s mind
and told her maid to proceed, but she didn’t want to be involved with the girl
until she had proven to be acceptable.

The maid went down to the
waters edge and found Cheri and told her to say goodbye to her mother and
father. She bowed before them briefly
but was clinging to her grandmother.

The Maid Lo Mei pulled her
away from the grandmother and said, “Stop your crying or I will leave you with
her.”

With that Cheri began to control
her self and according to Martha’s instructions she took Cheri to the bath
house and bathed her and checked her for lice.

She had bought two outfits
for her to wear that would look acceptable in the house where she was going. The last stop was to the doctor who after a
complete checkup said she was healthy except for some parasites that some
medicine would clean up in a few days.

All this had taken most of
the day and the maid with Cheri hurried home. She still had to get Cheri
settled in her room and report to Martha.

Martha said you have done better
with her than I expected for I figured she would have to be isolated for awhile
until she was given a clean bill of health.

Lo Mei said, “There is one
other thing and that is she speaks English better than I do.

She has been dealing with English speaking
people on the docks since early childhood, and has learned how to communicate
at least with the common language of the docks.”

Martha said, “She sounds like
a jewel.How did you find her?”

Lo Mei said. “It wasn’t easy
for you wouldn’t have allowed most of the straggly street urchins near this
house.

Martha said, “If she is what
you say she is, I may want to see her tomorrow, but for now get her fed and put
to bed. I don’t want a stranger
wandering around the house at night.”

Lo Mei went to Cheri’s room
and took her to the kitchen where she said, “Can you cook?”

Cheri said she could, so she
was told to cook some food for the two of them. The house cook had left for the
night so they were on their own.

Cheri had never seen so much
food, and there were things she had only seen in the better stores. Lo Mei laid out some vegetables and chicken,
and Cheri quickly cooked their meal.

While Cheri wasn’t used to
the kind of foodstuffs Lo Mei laid out, as far as Cheri was concerned, cooking
was cooking. After their meal Cheri
quickly cleaned up for Lo Mei said the cook would be angry if they left a mess.

Lo-Mei then showed her where
the helps toilet was and asked her if she knew how to use it.

She said that she did, so
then Lo Mei said. “Now go to bed and tomorrow I will show you the rest of the
house, and go over all the rules you must obey.

Cheri went to her room and
she couldn’t believe all that had happened. She had never seen such luxury and her room
was unbelievable. Living all her years
on the Sampan and now the contrast of where she was now was breath taking.

Tomorrow, tomorrow!

It was going to be the time she would meet
the lady of the house and she didn’t know what to expect, but her days on the
docks had taught her to adapt to the situation, and she thought her skills
would see her through no matter what was ahead.

Thursday, August 29, 2013

Today begins a new continued story: The adventures of a poor Chinese Girl sold into the care of a rich English lady and the terrors that were waiting for the young girl there.To not miss any of the coming chapters - - sign up to follow by e-mail in the side bar box.

A Sampan
Courtesy Google Search

It was during the control of Hong Kong by the British that this story occurred.

Going back several years The
House of Chen were honored merchants with several Junks that plied their trade
in the ports of China. The elder Chen
had inherited much wealth but with each generation it was diminished due to the
distribution of the wealth among the children.

The last of the Chen family
with money was Cheng Chao Chen, but as he aged his sons wasted the last of their
estate. Cheng was left with what
amounted to a couple of Sampans anchored at Hong Kong.

Along with the loss of wealth
was the loss of social standing. The
once proud clan was now just another poor family trying to survive.

The family consisted of the
aged grandmother, Cheng and his wife along with four boys. He was lucky to only have boys for they were
able to earn a little money to help the family survive.

Then the last thing they
wanted to happen occurred.A baby girl
was born to the House of Chen. She was a
fine looking child but Cheng said when she gets older she will eat too much and
we won’t have enough food for us all.

Cheng told his wife to let it
slip overboard into the water like so many others were doing. His wife put it off saying she would nurse
the child and it wouldn’t cost anything to feed it but after two years the
father caught the mother giving the child a little rice and demanded she do as
he had said.

The mother wrapped the child
in a piece of linen and was preparing to release the child into the Hong Kong
bay at night for that was the practice, when the grandmother grabbed the child
away from the mother and retreated back to where she stayed on the Sampan.

The mother was frantic for
her husband had threatened her if she didn’t obey and she tried to wrestle the
child from the grandmother, but when she was stuck with a small knife by the
grandmother she withdrew leaving the child with the grandmother.Then she went and told her husband what had
happened.

He went over to the Sampan
and was going to rip the child from his aged mother.When he saw the knife she had and the menacing
motions she was making toward him, he retreated and made some threats which she
ignored.

From that time on the
grandmother shared her food with the child and named her Cheri Leng Chen. There were no further threats to Cheri but her
grandmother never let her out of her sight.

Perhaps it was just because
Cheri was intelligent or because her grandmother taught her all the wisdom of
their ancestors she possessed; but Cheri was exceptionally gifted, and had to
temper her smarts with wisdom so as not to put down her brothers.

One by one the brothers left
the home of their father and sought something better for them-selves.

Cheri’s grandmother was
ailing and she didn’t have many days left on earth so now it was Cheri’s turn
to protect her grandmother.

With the boys gone they only
needed one Sampan to live on so the Cheng sold one of them and this bought
enough rice for their remaining years.

A series of events were going
to transpire that would change the fortunes of the girl Cheri.

One of the British officials
who had been posted there had two sons and one daughter and it was time for
them to return to England for their education.

The English mother had some
difficulty in letting her daughter go for her studies, but finally consented to
allow it. The house was quiet and lonely
for the mother without her children. The
father was too busy to notice his wife’s sadness because he was often away on
the state’s business.

The mother decided that maybe
having another child from among the local castoffs might give her some relief
from her solitude.

She gave strict instructions
to the head house maid as to what she wanted and warned her not to bring
anything else for they would never do.

The first day the maid went
out looking brought no results, but later in the week she spied Cheri selling
some goods she had acquired by bartering.

The maid inquired as to who
she might be, and talked to several store keepers about her. As it turned out she decided Cheri might just
do.

She went aboard the Sampan
and started to explain what she had in mind when the father deferred to the
grandmother.

After four hours of
explaining that Cheri would be living in a grand house and she would be
perfectly safe the grandmother agreed and put her knife away.

Lucas found a contractor who had
gone bankrupt during the war and ended up working for the government at a
supply depot. Once again he was out of a
job and that was his situation when Lucas found him.

Lucas asked him, “How is it
that you went broke during some of the most prosperous times in history?”

The man, Raymond answered, “It
does seem strange, but I had many projects going, but all at once I couldn’t
get materials to finish them, and the bank foreclosed on them causing me to
lose everything. I couldn’t even bid on
government projects for I had no money for the required Bonds and no credit. I took the supply job so my family could eat.”

That answer told Lucas what
he needed to know about his past. He now
wanted to talk about the future. Lucas
asked Raymond, from his view point what the future held for builders.

Raymond said, “This is all I
have thought about the last few years and I concluded that the only way to make
any money will be to do it all.”

Lucas said, “What do you mean
by do it all.”

Raymond said, “Find property
adjacent to cities that you plan to develop and then build houses on a grand
scale. You will starve trying to build
one house at a time.”

Lucas said, “How many do you
have in mind to build at a time?”

He said, “As many as the area
will support. With all the servicemen
coming home and starting families there will be a great demand for houses
especially new one with modern connivances.”

After spending a week with
Raymond, Lucas could see the potential for being in the main stream of “what’s
happening now” and he wanted to be a part of it.

Raymond suggested that they
talk to Abel about subdividing the land he had which was twenty acres at
present, and build a small tract of homes. Able could keep a couple of acres for himself
or take one of the new homes.

Ray as Lucas started calling
Raymond said, “At present, or within the year about ten houses would be about
all this area could absorb. Then later
they could finish the project but the main thing was they wouldn’t have to lay
out the money for a land purchase.”

It took six months to get
ready to start the first house, but after that they would build three at a
time. Before they were finished the homes
were sold. Ray was out scouting for property in and around the larger cities.

Lucas sold the property he
bought from Marley for that race business was behind him. He wasn’t interested in race cars anymore. He kept a few cars down at the race track for
local interest but rarely went to the track himself.

Sammie, as Lucas decided to
call his son was growing and was nearing his fourth birthday. He spent a lot of time at Abel’s and his
cousins and his auntie’s place.

Abel had retired from
repairing autos except for the hard luck stories that showed up at his
doorstep. Just to help them out he would
relent and repair their vehicle. Then he
would swear not to get sucked in again for he always lost money on the deal. Seems people were always broke and couldn’t
pay for the parts.

After two years the
construction business was booming for Lucas and Ray.They had the formula figured out for putting
a package together that would make a lot of money.

Leslie never went to work for
she was very happy being a home maker which was something Lucas needed more
than an extra paycheck.

Then it happened.- - Something
neither Lucas nor Leslie wanted.

Sammie having reached the
grand old age of five came in one evening and looked to be deep in thought.

Then Sammie said, “I’m a racer” and I want you and
Uncle Abel to build me a car for I need to get started on my career.

THE END

Postscript: Once you get to know the people and their
lives it is hard to leave them for their future is still ahead of them, but the
time comes when we must move on and meet some new friends. Robert

Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Lucas finally managed to get
a new washing machine. The guy that had
it kept it unused in the basement of his house, after his wife left him for
another man. He wanted more for it than
it should have been, but Lucas said he would trade him a set of tires for the
washer.

The man tried to get more, but
Lucas held firm, because he knew the man needed those tires. Bella was out of diapers but with the new baby
coming it was going to be a god send.

All of the old scrap metal
had been turned in to the smelters, and there was a lot of old parts still
around if anyone needed them. Lucas knew
some other dealers who were doing the same thing as he was, and he decided to
put all of his parts up for sale in four lots.

He knew that the whole
inventory was more than one dealer could handle. Having broken the inventory
down into four groups, he had more buyers than he needed.

After a month everything was
removed from Abel’s place and it looked empty and in a much needed cleanup. He told Lucas it was nice having all that junk
gone and not having to look at it each day. Lucas had to agree for it had been an eye sore
for the last five years.

Everyone associated with
Lucas had made a lot of money. He
himself was rich beyond anything he could have imagined. Abel was what you might say borderline rich,
and even Charlie was very well off.

Mason had enough money put
away for the rest of his days, and the high school kids all had money in their
pocket to spend, but times were changing.

Lucas realized that the war
would soon be over and the next money maker would be in construction.

He already had his car
dealerships but construction would be the thing to be in. How to get started was the question he had to
answer.

When in doubt the place to go
is to people who know the answer.

He went and talked to a
retired builder and had several conversations with him and began to get a feel
for how to be successful in the construction game.

Lucas began to set up the
Marley buildings for his construction office. He hired an architect to begin to draw some
plans for cheap houses that were more modern than anything in town.

The builder he had consulted
with suggested that he also buy up any houses that were for sale and clean them
up and rent them. This would give him
some business experience in dealing in the real estate market.

There were a number of houses
for sale, but not many renters at present. The thing was they were for sale and
not that expensive. Leslie asked Lucas
what he was going to do with all the houses he was buying.

He said, “Do you remember
when I bought all those cars? This is
the same thing. There is coming a time
when people will pay a good price for these homes.”

She said, “I sure hope so for
we don’t need but one to live in.”

Courtesy
photobucket

The days went by and it was
time for Leslie to give birth again. Shortly
after she went into the hospital she presented Lucas with a fine looking boy.

She told him since it is a
boy you get to name him. He said, “I
always hoped to have a son and name him Jackson Samuel.”

She said, “What will you call
him?”

He said, “I will call him ‘son’
for a time and then decide whether it will be Jack or Sam.”

She said, “Okay, but I was
hoping it would be Lucas Jr.”

He said, “One Lucas is enough
in this family.”

Then it happened almost as
fast as it began! The war was over as we
entered the age of the atom.

Monday, August 26, 2013

This is an extra post as it will be entered at my Wife's Tell me a Story site.

image courtesy photobucket.com

Levis were first made in the 1800s;
they were tough, stylish, and functional. Since I wasn't born then, I had to
wait until the 30’s and 40’s to realize their impact on my school peers.

There were several things
that made Levis special.The copper
rivet, placed at the stress points, (they had to finally remove the one in the
crotch for obvious reasons,) the toughness of the material, the special
stitching on the pockets, the button up fly, the leather logo patch, and the
red Levi patch on the pocket.All this
and more made the Levi jeans, the pants of choice for most of the boys in
school. The girls found out that they looked good in jeans and then they began
to wear them also.

It was a tradition that
before school started each year the boys would get a new pair of Levis, and
then began the preparation of them.It
was a ritual that when buying Levis you bought them with the legs about 8
inches too long so you could fold them up inside the pant leg and then fold
them back again on the outside of the leg to make a cuff.In order for the cuff to stay in that
position, paper clips were placed on them, after awhile they could be taken off
and the cuffs would stay in position.

It also was a tradition that
the Levis were to be worn the whole year without being washed.Since the boys used a greasy hair crème on
their hair, the grease would get on their hands, which they promptly wiped
on their pants.By the end of the school
year those pants would reek from sweat and grease, and they also would be
pretty stiff by this time.I remember
being told by one boy, “When I take my pants off I want them to stand up in the
corner by themselves.”

There were other additions to
their attire; argyle socks, and knitted wool sweaters with designs on them such
as a deer.

One other item, that was a
must, was wing tipped shoes that were dyed with cordovan dye. The dye had a
pungent odor that drove some adults to distraction. The awful smell affected
the manager of the local theater so dreadfully that he often kicked some kids
out of the show.

What I have addressed so far
is what the cool kids wore.

My attire was somewhat
different.

My mother would not buy me
Levis, due to the high cost of them. They
were made by American women instead of the cheaper Chinese labor that other
Jean makers were using.I had to wear
these low-cost jeans which eliminated me from being a part of the cool set.

Not only that, but my jeans
were washed each week. While I didn't have the “in” sweater, I did have
the wing tips and I dyed them with the cordovan dye myself, so all was not
lost.

One final note, when you
washed Levis the leather patch on the back would shrivel and wrinkle. One of my
friends was very upset, because his mother had finally got fed up with his
nasty pants and washed them. He was really beside himself; it was as if his
whole image was now destroyed.

It’s a good thing I wasn't
very style conscious for I would have been miserable, because I never had a
pair of Levis, until I could buy them myself!

One thing Lucas had not
figured on was the attack that ushered the USA into the war. He had planned on it taking a longer period of
time.

The next day after the attack,
even before the President declared war against the enemies Lucas placed a large
order for new cars. He managed to get a
commitment from the manufacturers before the announcement that all future
vehicles would be made for the government.

The announcement caused the
cars to be worth almost twice as much than before.

Then the office of the O.P.A
and the associated services stepped in and put price controls on almost
everything including tires, automobiles, shoes, nylon, sugar, gasoline, fuel
oil, coffee, meats and processed foods.

This cut down on the profit
Lucas could have made, but regardless, he still made a good profit.

The used cars he was selling
brought in more profit than the new cars.

He was selling all the cars
as soon as they were finished. Little by
little his lot was empting out and the supply of cars had dwindled down to no
more than one or two a week. His new car
dealerships were out of new cars and the used ones never made it to the lots.

Lucas now had to depend
mostly on selling parts for cars. The
one thing he had was a mountain of used casing and with the advent of synthetic
rubber the retreading of tires business exploded.

He made a deal with a
retreading company for the lowest price available.

One by one he had a crew
inspect the casings and separate them into groups. They were divided by the
ones that were perfect and those that could be repaired and the ones that were
sold for making different useable items.

It seemed that even though sale
of cars had all but stopped, people would bring in their old tires they had
laying around and sell them to him for cash.

The dealership’s stock of
parts was running low and Lucas couldn’t replace

what he sold, so he combined everything
that was left into one big lot and sold it to another dealer.He kept one maintenance man on for both
dealerships.

In order to keep his
franchise he placed an order for the next new cars to be built after the war.This assured him of not losing them due to no
activity.

Leslie had another
announcement and Lucas had an idea what that was going to be.“We are going to have a new baby in about five
months so that means we have to move or build on to our house.”

This presented a real problem
for building materials were hard to come by. Usually you could wave some extra
money in front of people and you got what you wanted but because of the
government controls you could end up in jail for breaking the law.

Then it occurred to Lucas he
knew where there was a practically new house that the owners had left and went
to the west coast to work in the ship yards. It took some time but he located
them and bought the house because they had no intention of returning.

Lucas spent the better part
of a week studying the house, and finally put his engineering skills to work
and came home to tell Leslie he had got it all figured out.

He thought to himself, "All I have to do is to get
the material for the foundation and the rest will be just a matter of hard work."

He said, "Both houses will fit together if we take off the back room of this
house and the side room on the new house. We will save all the materials to use for
other projects." He continued, "I have it all
drawn out for you to see."

“How are you going to get it
moved?” she asked?

He said, “There is a house
mover who has been trying to get some tires and other parts from me and I have
made a deal with him. He said he will
start raising the house tomorrow and by the weeks end it will be here.

I have to get a crew over there and remove the
side room and come here and remove the back room. When we get finished our
house will be almost twice as big as now.”

Saturday, August 24, 2013

Lucas sat down and told
Leslie about what happened today regarding Marley’s shop, and said they had to
make some plans for the future.

Getting the property from
Marley was going to change everything,

As they talked he said, “I’m
going to make some contacts in Washington and try to find out what is really
going on. I will be back in a few days.
It is important that I talk face to face with these people for they won’t tell
me anything over the phone.”

While in Washington he made
the rounds and found that everyone was tight lipped and it took a lot of
coercion on his part to get any information.

After he began to piece
together what each had told him, he began to see the bigger picture for the
future.

When he returned he said, “It
would be better if I don’t go into what I have learned, but I think I know
which direction to go.

Some of the stuff I learned I
shouldn’t have been told to me but I managed to weasel it out of them after
they had one too many cocktails and most of it I won’t repeat or tell anyone,
not even you.”

That didn’t set to well with
Leslie and as her lip began to curl.

He said, “I can tell you this; it looks
like we will be drawn into the War conflict and that means there will be some
things in short supply. What we do will
be risky but will be based on what I discovered.”

The next day Leslie had
settled down, and she wanted to know what Lucas had in mind, because much of
their future would depend on what they did in the next few months.

Lucas told her, “We are going
into the auto business.”

She said, “What do you mean
the auto business?”

He said, “Come on go with me and
I will show you.”

They pulled up in front of
the Ford dealership and an hour later they had purchased the cars, parts and
everything else.

The same thing happened with
the Chevy dealership. The agreement was with both, that the prior owners would
stay on and run them for a year.

After that they went over to
Abel’s and while the two sisters talked about babies Lucas and Abel went
outside and discussed plans that involved Abel.

Lucas said, “I want to buy
every car in the area whether running or not. We want them for as little as we can get them.”

Abel said, “Where is the
money going to come from to buy all the cars?”

Lucas said, “I have the money,
and if we need more I can get it from the bank.”

Then he told Able that he had
bought the Ford and Chevy dealerships and they both had wrecker trucks and Abel
could use them for picking up anything that didn’t run.

“We will strip them down at
your place and rebuild them at the old Marley buildings. “

Leslie said to Lucas, “I hope
you know what you are doing because if not we are going to own more cars than
anyone has ever owned.”

Lucas said, “It is possible
that I may be on the wrong track but if not we are going to be rich.”

A couple of months later Abel
said, “My place if full and the only way to buy any more is for me to buy the
land next to me.”

Lucas said, ‘Go ahead and buy
the five acres next to you and I have bought a large tent to work under when
the weather changes.”

Abel said; “that will be
nice” with no emotion displayed at all.

Lucas said, “Maybe it is time to start to fix
some of these cars and move them to my dealerships and offer them for sale.”

Abel said, “I think that
might be a good idea although I don’t know who will buy them for money is very
scarce.”

Lucas bought many barrels of
black paint and told Abel, “We will paint these cars before we try to sell them
and once we are through they will look almost like new.”

Abel said, “Who is going to
do all this work for it will drive the price up if we hire professional
workers.”

Lucas said, “We will hire the
high school kids to work after school and that way we will get it done for very
little. There are many kids that have no
way to earn any money and they will be glad to have a job even though it is low
paying.”

Lucas hired a couple of the
mechanics that were out of work since Marley closed his shop; and one of the
painters that was looking for something to do.

Some of the cars would run
and some wouldn’t. There were times it
took three cars to make one good one. Before
long a small army was working on Lucas’s project and the cars were piling up
with very few being bought even though Lucas would finance them.

Lucas was thrilled with the
system for it was working really well. The
high school kids soon learned the whole restoration system, and there were a
lot of girls as well as boys working.

There were some jobs the
girls could do better than the boys. They
could get the cars ready to be sprayed, and detail the insides better than the
guys could.Boys did not seem to be as detailed
minded as were the girls.

Abel’s car lots were full of
the cars and he was still buying more and then it happened.

Friday, August 23, 2013

Here in America
we find a group of individuals who protest any and everything Christian.

They ignorantly
proclaim “There is no God.”

Due to the fact most
Christians are peaceful, as much as the present culture of this country will
allow, Christians are not physically opposed.

My thought is
that if these “Un-Believers” are sincere in their unbelief, I challenge them to
prove their unbelief by going to some of the Islamic countries and parade up
and down the streets declaring “There is no Allah.”

Until they are
willing to prove their faith en masse by doing so, they can’t possibly know if
what they proclaim (there is no God) to be right or wrong.

It is time for
the ultimate test for their anti-God stance.Christians are dying every day for their belief in these Islamic lands;
so it is only fair for the anti-Christ believers to go forth and show and
proclaim their faith in the Islamic countries.

Until they
demonstrate by proclaiming their doctrine in these lands, they show that they don’t
truly believe in Atheism.

It is just a way
to draw attention to them-selves.

I
don’t need for someone to argue with me about this; It is “Show me time.”

Thursday, August 22, 2013

The European conflict had
drawn this country into to war, and after they had finished with Lucas’ house
renovation they returned to their apartment.

Lucas had taken on a look of
seriousness, and wanted to talk about their future.

Leslie said, “Alright but one
thing you should know is there is another consideration. We will have to plan for three instead of two because
we are going to be parents.”

Lucas almost said, “How did
that happen?” but caught himself for he knew how it happened.

Even though he was usually
restrained, he couldn’t contain himself at that news. He said, “Maybe we should move back to our
house since it is just like new and that would be a good place to raise our
family. With your sister nearby she would
be a great help.”

She agreed and said, “Yes our
furniture would fit right in and we wouldn’t need anything else except for the
baby.”

Lucas said, “Then it’s
settled.”

During the next week they
were planning to move when Lucas received greetings from Uncle Sam. He was being inducted into to army.

Lucas said, “This doesn’t
have to interfere with our plans to move so let’s finish packing.”

By the end of the week they
had all of their furniture in place in the house and had an extra bedroom being
built on for the baby when it came.

Lucas was summoned by the
army to come and take his physical, but was found to have flat feet, which
disqualified him for service.

This changed things again for
he wasn’t planning to have to seek employment any time soon.

Due to his connections in the
design department of the new army motorcycle he heard over the grape vine, there
was some fear we would be joining Britain in the war against Germany.

During the last war there had
been shortages of most everything and he was guessing that the same thing would
happen again should America decided to join in with Britain.

Lucas drove by Marley’s old
shop and there was a sign on it for sale. He contacted the person whose phone number was
on the sign and asked how much they were asking for it and when the man told
him Lucas said he would like to see inside.

He met the man and when he
got inside it was just as they left it with all the equipment still in place. Nothing had been touched in the offices. Even the hand tools were there, the welders,
paint equipment, and everything.

He told the man he thought
the price was a little high, but he made an offer on it.

The man said the owner was
out of the country but he could reach him by phone. Lucas said that would be alright for he was in
no hurry.

When he told Leslie what he
had done she asked, “What are you planning to do with that.”

He said, “I don’t know but I
will figure it out.”

A couple of days later the
agent met with Lucas and told him he had contacted the owner and told him who
the buyer was and he countered your offer.

Lucas said, “I don’t know, I
think my offer is as much as I will pay.”

The agent said, “I think you
will be pleased with the price he wants. He said he knew you and were friends and the
price to you will be one dollar.”

Lucas said, “You must be
mistaken or didn’t hear you right.”

“No, no I got it right, and
he told me to use my power of attorney and sign off on the deeds as soon as I
received the dollar.”

An hour later the paper work
was finished and Lucas was still shaking his head in unbelief.

Then the man said, “Marley
said to tell Lucas, that he hoped this would makeup for being pushed out of the
business, and was sorry he couldn’t explain everything because of security.”

As Lucas went home he felt
much better about what had happened in the last year for he didn’t understand
why Marley had dumped him until now.

He thought, “I have some
serious thinking to do for it seems there are some dark days ahead.”

A few months later Leslie
presented Lucas with a girl baby. He
could hardly contain himself.

At the hospital they wanted
to know what name to put on the birth certificate and Lucas said, “I thought
Samuel was the name I wanted but considering the circumstances I think Leslie
had better choose.”

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Lucas finished the
dismantling the cycle and he asked, “Who made this machine?”

Marley said, “It is made by a
German company named B.M.W.”

“How did we get it? asked
Lucas.

Marley said, “It was stolen
piece by piece by a person who worked in their plant and two of them were sold
to the English and assembled there. They
sent one to America and we have it.”

Lucas said, “I know we said
we could build a better bike, but their technology is farther advanced than
anything I have ever seen. The OHV
engine and being shaft driven is a great advance in technology.”

Lucas continued, “I have
mixed feelings about this whole thing. I
suggest we do minor redesign work on our machine and fulfill our contract and
then turn this new technology development over to a company that has the
resources to build a bike similar to the German machine.

We should do the preliminary
design and then try to get a percentage of the profit from their sales. The long and short of it is we are going to be
in over our heads.”

This didn’t please Marley
very much, but after giving it some thought he could see the logic of what
Lucas had said. After some obvious
redesign work Marley approached one of the major motorcycle companies and what
happened after that was kept secret.

In the midst of everything
that happened Lucas had a wedding to prepare for. His bride to be was just as busy as Lucas for
she was finishing her finals so that left little time for the two of them
together.

They started assembling the
bikes they had contracted for and Lucas was left out of the events that
followed the next few years. He seldom
saw Marley for he was never around anymore.

Upon completion of their
contract Lucas was given a large check and a notice of dismissal.

He also was receiving a
monthly check as his part of the work he had done on the development of their
cycle.

A couple of days before the
wedding they both had some free time and managed to get reacquainted as it
were. Every one of their friends was
invited and it was a lively event.

Lucas was disappointed that
Marley didn’t make it but his wife did and explained Marley wasn’t in the
country. It was years later before
Marley met him again and explained what happened and that what had occurred was
dictated by the defense department.

Lucas felt a little better
about things with the explanation for he had no inkling of what went down.Even though he was well rewarded he felt left
out and somewhat perturbed.

With no obligations Lucas and
Leslie spent a month in Hawaii just getting to know each other. During this time their love for one another
increased daily, and what started out as an intelligent life time choice had
turned into a passionate love affair.

When they returned several
decisions had to be made. Lucas wasn’t
employed and Leslie had to decide what she wanted to do. Her original intent was to teach but she was
weighing her options as of now. A lot of
what she would do now depended upon what Lucas decided to do.

He tried to find his mother,
but they had moved from his house without telling anyone.It seems the law might have been on her
husband’s trail.Lucas never saw or
heard from them again.

Abel had locked the house up so no
one had been in it since they had left it that night.

When Lucas arrived to look over the damage to
his house; it was even worse than he had imagined.

Lucas had a cleanup crew come
in and remove everything in it and then had it fumigated. With repairs completed, new floors, and new
paint the place looked livable or sellable which ever they decided to do with
it.

Leslie said, “I promised to
call my sister as soon as you asked me, so I had better call her now for I know
she is on pins and needles.”

She made the call and her
sister wanted to know every detail with nothing left out.

Lucas couldn’t stand it so he
left the room and turned the radio on.

An hour later she came in and
said. “They both wished us good luck and other well wishes. Abel told me that I got a good man with which
I totally agree with him.”

While Leslie laid out plans
for the wedding Lucas’s mind drifted over to the new plant and the progress
that had been made.

The offices were finished
enough for them to begin moving in.

The next day Marley called
Lucas and wanted him to come to the old facility.

When he arrived he saw a
crude looking cycle. Marley told him to
take some pictures and then dismantle it.

While this puzzled Lucas he
had learned long ago that Marley always had some reason for what he was doing.

After Lucas and a helper had
the bike completely torn apart Marley came over and said, “What do you think?”

Lucas said. “I need a little
time to fully understand this machine, but on the surface it looks well made
for the purpose it was intended. It is
ugly and not very comfortable but that wasn’t the purpose it was made for is my
guess.”

Marley said, “There is going
to be a war in Europe again and this is one of the machines that will play a
big part in the war if it happens.”

Lucas said. “It is far
simpler than our model but looks like it would take a beating and still
perform.”

Marley said, “That is just
what I think. After looking at this I
can see where we can improve on our model and we need to get started on the redesign
of it now.”

Lucas said, “We can do the
design work here for it isn’t going to be that complicated and by the time we
are finished the new plant should be far enough along to start moving into.”